In his Four Quartets, TS Eliot comments upon one of life’s most interesting paradoxes ‘What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from’. The medium of voyage (real or metaphorical) is used for self-discovery, as well as for testing our reactions to the great experiences of life.

Richard Rowe (tenor) and Peter Medhurst (piano) explore a wide range of songs on the theme of beginnings and endings, including Come Heavy Sleep by Dowland, Abendempfindung by Mozart, moments from Die Schöne Müllerin by Schubert, Songs of Travel by Vaughan Williams, and Dies Natalis by Finzi.

Mailing list members only

4th July

Henfield Hall

Henfield, West Sussex

Adur Valley DFAS

Lady Oliver Lecture

Eliza is the Fairest Queen

Music at the Court of Elizabeth I

Music was a driving passion in the life of Elizabeth I and her desire to be surrounded by it inspired the great composers of the day to honour her with their compositions. In this specially devised programme for Adur Valley DFAS, Peter Medhurst explores the wide range of musical talent that existed during the so-called Golden Age of English Music and performs a selection of songs and keyboard music drawn from the works of Byrd, Morley, Johnson, Bull, Farnaby & Dowland.

7.30 pm

Information: 01403 710654

5th July

University of Kent

Avebury Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent

Study Day

10.00 am – 4.00 pm

Handel’s Dixit Dominus

Dixit Dominus is a setting in Latin of Psalm 110 (Vulgate 109) and was finished in April 1707 while Handel was living in Italy. The music was first performed on 16th July 1707 in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto, under the patronage of the Colonna family. Dixit Dominus is always regarded as one of the highlights of Handel’s Italian period of composition (before he came to England) and the study course examines in detail the remarkable structure and flow of this most energetic of choral works.

The Magic Flute is one of the best loved of all Mozart’s operas and charms audiences today as much as it did those at the end of the 18th century. However, beneath the surface of the music are many complexities, ambiguities and hidden secrets, which when revealed enhance the listener’s understanding and enjoyment of the work. By following the progress of Tamino – the opera’s hero – Peter Medhurst shows that Mozart’s opera is one of the finest musical products of the enlightenment.

Tickets from Mrs F Pragnell 01732 453240

23rd July

Harold Road Day 4

Mozart, the Violin, and the Violin Sonata

In 1777, after a particularly good concert, Mozart wrote to his father ‘I played as if I were the greatest fiddler in all of Europe’ and certainly, if Mozart had practiced enough, there is no reason why he could not have been one of the foremost violinists of his day. He had the potential. Never mind, through his compositions, Mozart contributed hugely to our understanding of the violin’s potential and unique personality, and in the 36 violin sonatas sets a new benchmark for this particular genre, paving the way for likeminded works of Beethoven.

Peter Medhurst explores the works of the French sculptor Roubiliac, the paintings of Hudson and Denner, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the novels of Samuel Butler, the Crystal Palace, the chimes of Westminster, as well as compositions by Sullivan and Tippett, to assess the cultural influences Handel had on ‘a nation’, as he once wrote, ‘from whom I have receiv’d so generous a protection’.